The Recovery Program is currently focusing its efforts on the captive-breeding, nest management, and reintroduction of California condors to the wild with the goal of establishing two geographically distinct self-sustaining populations of condors in the wild, with a third population retained in captivity. Each population should number 150 individuals, with 10-15 breeding pairs within each group.

Currently, there are more than 123 California condors flying free in Central and Southern California, 75 in Arizona and Utah, and 29 in Baja, Mexico. In 2008, the Recovery Program reached an important milestone, with more California condors flying free in the wild than in captivity for the first time since the program began. That brings a total of more than 227 birds are flying free in the wild and 189 are in captivity as of 2013. Another new exciting milestone for the program has been the implementation of the nest camera in three of the wild nests on both Hopper Mountain and Bitter Creek NWRs.